I developed a plan some years ago for a community woodland development. It involved various ‘sculptures’ made from two of my favourite creative materials, wood and glass, with a bit of stainless steel thrown in for good measure (I like steel too). They were intended to use ‘sight lines’ and perspective creatively, so that depending on what direction you approached the sculpture, the view would differ, and the inherent message change.

The development never materialized (for a load of political reasons) but a colleague and I made a scale model about 6 feet tall using the techniques developed, as an entry to a competition on the theme of deaf/blindness, but adding photographs into the mix, portraits of people with a variety of physical and intellectual problems. The photos were printed at varying sizes, split up the middle, and each differing-in-size half placed so that the viewer had to be in a specific point in space to be able to see the ‘whole’ images.

It forced the audience to explore the space surrounding the work in order to find the one spot where you could see a ‘whole’ person. It sought to make the point that to communicate with someone who is deaf and blind you need to find the correct approach for that individual, and underline that it is hard, if not impossible, for that process to occur on anything other than a one-to-one basis.

It was an interesting experience, forcing me to consider different viewpoints, both intellectually and photographically and adopt unusual perspectives that I might not normally have contemplated.

This ad campaign uses those same ideas of perspective to selectively deliver a message, and is remarkable. Wonderfully inspired. Hugely important. And whomever thought it up deserves a huge hug.

Using lenses and photography to ‘conceal’ a message from adults, one that only children can see is, a brilliant way to use ‘technology’ to try to make a difference, and doing so using the simple ‘trick’ of perspective. For photographers it should be a reminder that what people might see in our work sometimes varies with perspective, physically, and more importantly emotionally.